Winnipeg's McEwen top seed heading into Kioti National quarterfinals

Team McEwen skip Mike McEwen directs his teammates against Team Gushue during the men's curling final at the PointsBet Invitational in Calgary on Sept. 29, 2024. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)

ST. JOHN'S -

Mike McEwen remains perfect at the Kioti National after taking an 8-1 victory over Winnipeg's Reid Carruthers on Friday.

McEwen, who's also from Winnipeg, scored three in the first end and never trailed.

He went 4-0 across round-robin play to finish as the No. 1 seed heading into Saturday's quarterfinals, where he'll face the winner of a tiebreaker between Switzerland's Marco Hoesli (2-2) and Marc Muskatewitz (2-2) of Germany.

Quarterfinal action will also see Calgary's Brad Jacobs (4-0) take on hometown hero Brad Gushue (2-2) while Scotland's Ross Whyte (3-1) battles Joel Retornaz (2-2) of Italy and Bruce Mouat (3-1) of Scotland goes up against American John Shuster (3-1).

The women's playoffs will begin with tiebreakers between Halifax's Christina Black (2-2) and South Korea's Eun-ji Gim, and Silvana Tirinzoni (2-2) of Italy and Seung-youn Ha of South Korea (2-2).

Later in the day, top seed Anna Hasselborg (4-0) of Sweden will go up against the winner of one tiebreak while No. 2 seed Eun-jung Kim of South Korea takes on the other victor.

The women's quarterfinals will also feature Kerri Einarson (3-1) of Gimli, Man., battling Japan's Satsuki Fujisawa (3-1), and Ottawa's Rachel Homan (4-0) facing Sayaka Yoshimura (2-2), who's also from Japan.

The finals are set to go Sunday.

The event is the third of five stops on the Grand Slam of Curling circuit.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 29, 2024.